Writer & Journalist
I began my career as a newspaper reporter and editor before earning a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. I stayed in New York for the next 25 years, eventually moving into the creative and marketing side of television, where I spent much of my career. In 2019, I traded New York for Portland, Oregon, and returned to journalism — this time writing about the natural world.
My reporting has since taken me to far-flung islands like the Galápagos, Aldabra Atoll, Saint Helena, and Mauritius, as well as to remote parts of Kenya, South Africa, Madagascar, Bangladesh, the Mojave Desert, and more. Much of that travel grew out of reporting for my forthcoming book about tortoises, and along the way I found conservation and natural history stories that I wrote for Smithsonian, BBC Future, Hakai, and other publications.
I’ve been accused of using the whole project as an excuse to travel. Maybe it’s true. For whatever reason, curiosity about the natural world and a desire for discovery seem to be hardwired into me. It started early.
When I was six, my family moved to Southeast Asia, where we lived in Bangkok for several years and explored the region widely, and weirdly. One example: My folks thought it would be cool to ride the old steam train north to Chiang Mai and then backpack up into the Golden Triangle to visit the Hill Tribes. My favorite photo has me standing shoulder-high in a field of opium poppies.
By college, I was doing it on my own. I spent a year of school in South Africa, followed by an epic solo overland trek across sub-Saharan Africa — hitchhiking and backpacking my way from Cape Town to Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro to traveling a thousand miles down the Congo River by barge.
Being a writer has given me another reason to follow my curiosity and see where it leads.
Professional Affiliations:
National Association of Science Writers (NASW)
Northwest Science Writers Association (NSWA)